Fuel Management

Coulomb Technologies, a leader in electric vehicle infrastructure, announced Feb. 18 the city of San Francisco has installed its Smartlet™ Networked Charging Stations at city hall. The charging stations are a part of a two-year public demonstration conducted with the city of San Francisco—a pilot project to power San Francisco's plug-in fleet and car-share plug-in vehicles. Unveiling of the charging stations came in a press conference with Mayor Gavin Newsom and Coulomb CEO Richard Lowenthal announcing the city's Green Vehicle Showcase outside city hall, and is part of the Bay Area's regional EV initiative.

Coulomb's charging stations are part of a smart networked charging infrastructure, called the ChargePoint Network, that addresses needs of electric vehicle drivers, utilities, municipalities, and parking space owners. The city of San Francisco's charging stations have new technology that supports clean fleets like those owned by the city. The "Fleet Management Portal" includes such features as interactive charts that summarize gasoline saved and greenhouse gases saved, displays of which vehicles are charging, which vehicles are fully charged, and which vehicles are overdue for charging. The Fleet Management Portal also includes smartphone text messaging that alerts EV drivers when cars need charging, when they are fully charged, and when charging is interrupted.

The price of regular gasoline continued to decline over the holidays and reached an average of $2.266 per gallon for the week ending Dec. 31, which was 5.5 cents lower that the prior week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The national price of gasoline has fallen to $2.37 per gallon, which is the lowest December level on record since 2016 and continues a price decline that began in early October. Gasoline prices have tumbled 54 cents from Oct. 9.

The average national price for regular unleaded fell 4 cents to $2.42 to reach a new low for 2018, as gasoline prices continued to follow oil prices to lower price levels for the week ending Dec. 10, according to AAA.